You might be an Almeologist if...

[Mornche Geddick]

Here. I don't know if you can use BBCode to create HTML anchors on the ZBB, so here's the actual text.

Music is decaphonic and polyrhythmic, based mostly on drums, horns, wooden flutes, and sitars. But there's an undeniable charm to country music, with its pentatonic scale, simple rhythms, and reliance on reed pipes and bagpipes.

I don't know exactly what pitches. A Skourene ten-note scale could include any of the pitches of the major scale plus those of the minor second, minor third, augmented fourth, minor sixth and minor seventh intervals. Probably there are two or more different Skourene musical scales.

As for the do-re-mi mnemonic, any ten syllable Old Skourene sentence will do, so long as they are all different syllables.

[Tarhun]

Here. I don't know if you can use BBCode to create HTML anchors on the ZBB, so here's the actual text.

Music is decaphonic and polyrhythmic, based mostly on drums, horns, wooden flutes, and sitars. But there's an undeniable charm to country music, with its pentatonic scale, simple rhythms, and reliance on reed pipes and bagpipes.

I don't know exactly what pitches. A Skourene ten-note scale could include any of the pitches of the major scale plus those of the minor second, minor third, augmented fourth, minor sixth and minor seventh intervals. Probably there are two or more different Skourene musical scales.

maybe it's a simple 10 equal divisions of the octave scale?

[zompist]

I'm no musicologist, but I wouldn't assume that Skourene music was equal temperament... something which, as I understand it, took a lot of getting used to.

[Mornche Geddick]

maybe it's a simple 10 equal divisions of the octave scale?

That's very unlikely. Musical scales are based on the most harmonious intervals (i.e. perfect fifth, perfect fourth, major third, etc). As a consequence, in most musical scales, the intervals are not equal. For example, the western major scale has eight notes, and its intervals are TTSTTTS (where T = tone, S = semitone). The seven-note whole tone scale (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#, C or C#, D#, F, G, A, B, C#) and the 13-note chromatic scale do have equal intervals. The objection to a ten note equal scale is that the pitches would be at intervals of 0.6 tones, which would make dischords if anyone attempted harmony. Also the musicians would probably retune their instruments, so that the note 3.6 tones above the key note would become 3.5 tones (perfect fifth) and the note at 1.8 tones would become the major third. In fact, you would end up with something like C, C#, D, E, F, G, G#, A#, B, C.

@Zompist, the major and minor scales were developed long before equal temperament. It is perfectly possible to play western music in just intonation, provided you retune your instrument every time you use a different key.

[Tarhun]

maybe it's a simple 10 equal divisions of the octave scale?

That's very unlikely. Musical scales are based on the most harmonious intervals (i.e. perfect fifth, perfect fourth, major third, etc). As a consequence, in most musical scales, the intervals are not equal. For example, the western major scale has eight notes, and its intervals are TTSTTTS (where T = tone, S = semitone). The seven-note whole tone scale (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#, C or C#, D#, F, G, A, B, C#) and the 13-note chromatic scale do have equal intervals. The objection to a ten note equal scale is that the pitches would be at intervals of 0.6 tones, which would make dischords if anyone attempted harmony. Also the musicians would probably retune their instruments, so that the note 3.6 tones above the key note would become 3.5 tones (perfect fifth) and the note at 1.8 tones would become the major third. In fact, you would end up with something like C, C#, D, E, F, G, G#, A#, B, C.

@Zompist, the major and minor scales were developed long before equal temperament. It is perfectly possible to play western music in just intonation, provided you retune your instrument every time you use a different key.

I see your point, but you're assuming here that harmonies in the Western sense is a necessary prerequisite for a musical scale. Perhaps some cultures may value sounds that don't approximate the various harmonic intervals, or approximate different ones than those approximated by our own twelve tone temperament. That's without even mentioning the fact that some harmonies sound different when played in different timbres - perhaps part of the reason why Indonesian gamelan tuning differs so much from Western scales, because their instruments make use of different timbres.

In fact a few people have experimented with 10 equal divisions of the octave scales, there's a list of examples that you can listen to on the xenharmonic wiki here. It certainly sounds... different to our ears, but I find it perfectly reasonable to imagine a culture that values these kinds of sounds. On the other hand, I agree with Zompist, an equal temperament for the Skourene seems unlikely considering when the Late Classical period was in Almean history

Anyway, to get back on topic: You might be an Almeologist if you find it somehow intuitively wrong that Europe is in the northern hemisphere. North means cold? What is this madness?!

[Mornche Geddick]

Thanks for the link, Tarhun. It's given me a lot to think about.

I notice however, Bill Sethares did have trouble when he came to attempt writing in 10-tet.

In 10-tet, though, none of the tones in the synthesizers seemed right on sustained passages. It was hard to find pairs of notes that sounded reasonable together, and triads were nearly impossible. Everything appeared somewhat out-of-tune, even though the tuning was precisely ten tones per octave.

He eventually had to use his synthesiser to create special timbres that would sound consonant in 10-tet. That option was not open to any musical tradition on Earth or Almea before the development of electronic musical instruments.

[Yæd]

Well, the most Western-like best-sounding Skourene scale should be the one lacking F and C, or E and B. But if zomp is looking for a more exotic scale (assuming he does), the argument becomes more difficult...

[Bristel]

Thanks for the link, Tarhun. It's given me a lot to think about.

I notice however, Bill Sethares did have trouble when he came to attempt writing in 10-tet.

In 10-tet, though, none of the tones in the synthesizers seemed right on sustained passages. It was hard to find pairs of notes that sounded reasonable together, and triads were nearly impossible. Everything appeared somewhat out-of-tune, even though the tuning was precisely ten tones per octave.

He eventually had to use his synthesiser to create special timbres that would sound consonant in 10-tet. That option was not open to any musical tradition on Earth or Almea before the development of electronic musical instruments.

Prelude in 10-tet sounds really interesting, but still a not completely consonant. It sounds a bit like Arabian music.